Katherine Trent's Research Projects

Women's Status and Reproductive Issues in India

• This project uses data from the 1998-1999 National Family Health Survey (NFHS2) of India to examine multiple dimensions of women's status in India and how these measures of women's status are linked to reproductive and other related outcomes. The study has examined how measures of socioeconomic development and women's status, as well as other factors affect abortion behavior. Also examined are the basic characteristics of marriages and how measures of women's status are related to different dimensions of marriage such as age at marriage, child marriage, and age and education differences between spouses. The net effects of measures of women's status, along with age at marriage, and age and education differences between spouses, on the relative power and freedom women have to make household and other decisions are also examined. This project will also later focus on early childbearing, birth spacing, individual autonomy, and contraceptive behavior among Indian women.

Adult Sibling Relationships

• This project examines relationships among adult siblings, using data from the National Survey of Families and Households on patterns of contact, closeness, and help given and received from siblings. It will also involve examination of the effects of sibsize on adult lives.